Money is what people use to buy the things that they need. A long time ago, people didn't use money. They would trade something they owned for something that they needed. If the shoemaker needed some bread, he would give the baker some shoes, and the baker would give him some bread. This was called "bartering." Bartering worked fine for a while…until the baker had too many shoes, but the shoemaker needed more bread. The solution to this problem was Money. The baker and the shoemaker agreed to accept money for the things that they made.